It depends on your build. If armor master puts you over the caps for physical and spell resistance its almost useless. But if you need armor master to reach the caps (32,500) then it is a great choice. Hist bark is very good bc with a 20% dodge chance it is essentially reducing your block cost by 20% meaning you can block more and mitigate more damage which is vital as a tank. However, some tanks use recovery sets such as seducers or willows path to help manahe their resources.

Lunar Bastion:

(2 Items) Adds 4% Healing Taken
(3 Items) Grants Minor Aegis, causing you to take 5% less damage from Boss Monsters.
(4 Items) Adds 1064 Maximum Health
(5 Items) When you use a synergy you create a lunar blessing for 10 seconds that grants a 2315 Damage Shield to nearby allies every 2 seconds.

If I had it I would use it.

I Use pariah..

It depends on what kind of tank you are, it's hard to pick one set that's the best across the board.

A couple you didn't mention that I've seen in use at VR16 are "Footman" (drops in Dragonstar Arena) and "Spectre's Eye" (craftable in Coldharbour, useful for magicka tanks).

Hist Bark because it lowers dmg by 20% and reduced block cost by 20%.
Only for a NB tank I would consider a different set because they have Double Take/Mirage.

Tava's Favor could work well on a stam DK tank in combination with Blood Spawn and Glorious Defender, havent tried this myself though.

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Hist Bark because it lowers dmg by 20% and reduced block cost by 20%.
Only for a NB tank I would consider a different set because they have Double Take/Mirage.

everyone can use elude and for magika tank there's good alternative set - specrte's eye

Tavas Blessing:
You don't really need the extra mitigation from Armour master and histbark is pointless now that it provides the same buff as shuffle. But being able to use Warhorn more often will help the dps a lot.

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

dancing.in.the.webeb17_ESO wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

Hist Bark because it lowers dmg by 20% and reduced block cost by 20%.
Only for a NB tank I would consider a different set because they have Double Take/Mirage.

everyone can use elude and for magika tank there's good alternative set - specrte's eye

Elude is pretty expensive to cast, its a great skill for medium armor builds but I personally dont like the stamina drain on heavy armor builds.

Spectre's Eye has an effective up time of max 50%, grating an effective dodge chance of 10% for longer fights.

HB dodge works only when you block, so if you permablock you will be out of stamina, the only exeption - NB sap tank but they has mirage also and do not need HB.

The new Tava's set is awesome. Combine that with bloodspawn and footmans you can get really close to the armor caps have decent magicka Regen and keep them warhorns up.

ListerJMC wrote: »

It depends on what kind of tank you are, it's hard to pick one set that's the best across the board.

This is the correct answer. Best armor sets depends on your class, stamina vs magicka focus, and preferred playstyle. As a NB, we get a great class dodge skill as well as decent resource management, so Hist Bark and Engine Guardian aren't necessary. For example, on my Argonian Magicka NB tank, I run 5pc Juggernaut, 3pc Willpower, 2pc Malubeth, and 2pc Lamae. Stacking healing received, magicka/spell power, and heal procs gives me a ton of self-healing power as well as decent DPS (8-10k single target, 15-25k AoE depending on circumstances). With resto staff on my off-bar, I can easily keep groups alive while tanking, or keep myself alive if the healer goes down.

Also, you don't really need more than 25-27k Health for endgame content. Nearly all mechanics are such that you will either get 1-shotted by the boss no matter your health/resistances, or you will get healed before you die. If your healer does die, with self-heals, damage shields, and mitigation effects you can easily survive on your own as well with that much health.

I like Leeching Plate for my Tank. Doesn't provide the resistances most of these sets do but that poison proc is just so lovely as it usually can keep me alive thru so much. I do plan on changing into Bahraha's Curse once I can acquire a full set in desirable traits, just because I play more magic based and elemental expert now provides the buff I need vs Thaumaturge.

I've never seen nor heard of anyone using Vampire's Kiss, Shalidor's Curse or Trial by Fire on any tank. Not saying people probably don't use them, just saying that I've not seen people use them. Wish ZOS would buff them to be more desirable though. (I think Trial by Fire got a buff recently but still)

Not a fan of Armor Master honestly. I tried it once and while it got me to the Resist cap in a hurry, the fact the buff only lasts 10 seconds, whereas most armor skills last 15+ seconds, made it seem like a chore to manage as well as a waste of resources due to constantly needing to reapply the buff before the armor buff even expired.

Only Shield Stack tanks can make effective use of Whitestrake's Retribution or Brand of Imperium as they've most likely got a healthy bit of CP put into Bastion to aid in the shield these sets provide.

Sceptre's Eye is a worst Histbark with the only benefit being more magic.

Tormentor was a troll move by ZOS. Just when I think they finally give us an AOE taunt. Silly me. Still, I did have some mild amusement tormenting PUG groups when they saw their tank go Werewolf. The screams of panic and all the name calling. Fun times

Alessia's Bulwark is somewhat niche. Lot of resist for sure but that weapon damage debuff doesn't really help when facing magic foes. Maybe in PvP against stamina players but even then, 5 seconds won't save you from WB spammers.

Black Rose was somewhat nice but since I like to build more for Magic than Stamina on my tanks, Templar being the exception, I found it didn't help me as much as I'd have liked it too, although the extra stamina did have a lot of uses to be sure.

Death's Wind is such a trolly set in PvP. Just as someone is close to death, bam. Knocked down and they spam whatever heal they have to get them back to (near) full. Not bad in PvE either.

Song of Lamae is ok as well. Damage is a bit low but the health restore is nice.

Histbark is still King for most non NB tanks though. No real flaw with the set; good bonuses, 20% evasion on demand. Best set of the bunch IMO.

Thanks for the answers. Basically I decide on my playstyle, class and focus, as someone said before. Yet I like to know the ones that are considered good and the ones that are considered bad.

Silver_Strider wrote: »

I like Leeching Plate for my Tank. Doesn't provide the resistances most of these sets do but that poison proc is just so lovely as it usually can keep me alive thru so much. I do plan on changing into Bahraha's Curse once I can acquire a full set in desirable traits, just because I play more magic based and elemental expert now provides the buff I need vs Thaumaturge.

I've never seen nor heard of anyone using Vampire's Kiss, Shalidor's Curse or Trial by Fire on any tank. Not saying people probably don't use them, just saying that I've not seen people use them. Wish ZOS would buff them to be more desirable though. (I think Trial by Fire got a buff recently but still)

Not a fan of Armor Master honestly. I tried it once and while it got me to the Resist cap in a hurry, the fact the buff only lasts 10 seconds, whereas most armor skills last 15+ seconds, made it seem like a chore to manage as well as a waste of resources due to constantly needing to reapply the buff before the armor buff even expired.

Only Shield Stack tanks can make effective use of Whitestrake's Retribution or Brand of Imperium as they've most likely got a healthy bit of CP put into Bastion to aid in the shield these sets provide.

Sceptre's Eye is a worst Histbark with the only benefit being more magic.

Tormentor was a troll move by ZOS. Just when I think they finally give us an AOE taunt. Silly me. Still, I did have some mild amusement tormenting PUG groups when they saw their tank go Werewolf. The screams of panic and all the name calling. Fun times

Alessia's Bulwark is somewhat niche. Lot of resist for sure but that weapon damage debuff doesn't really help when facing magic foes. Maybe in PvP against stamina players but even then, 5 seconds won't save you from WB spammers.

Black Rose was somewhat nice but since I like to build more for Magic than Stamina on my tanks, Templar being the exception, I found it didn't help me as much as I'd have liked it too, although the extra stamina did have a lot of uses to be sure.

Death's Wind is such a trolly set in PvP. Just as someone is close to death, bam. Knocked down and they spam whatever heal they have to get them back to (near) full. Not bad in PvE either.

Song of Lamae is ok as well. Damage is a bit low but the health restore is nice.

Histbark is still King for most non NB tanks though. No real flaw with the set; good bonuses, 20% evasion on demand. Best set of the bunch IMO.

Shalidor's Curse used to be pretty awesome before they severely nerfed it in the IC update. The 4pc bonus used to be another 4% healing received, and the 5pc bonus was a nearly 7k heal that proc'd at 40% health and had a 60 second cooldown. I ran it on my NB tank for a long time before they nerfed it. Juggernaut is a good replacement, but it has a longer cooldown, and I miss the additional 8% healing received since my build stacks that stat. I'd say Juggernaut is also superior to Lamae as well in terms of the 'oh crap' self-healing power. Now that ZOS upped the drop rate for rare dolmen sets, Draugr's Heritage is the better choice over Death's Wind (though the traits and slots are somewhat limiting).

Silver_Strider wrote: »

ThatNeonZebraAgain wrote: »

Silver_Strider wrote: »

Snip

Shalidor's Curse used to be pretty awesome before they severely nerfed it in the IC update. The 4pc bonus used to be another 4% healing received, and the 5pc bonus was a nearly 7k heal that proc'd at 40% health and had a 60 second cooldown. I ran it on my NB tank for a long time before they nerfed it. Juggernaut is a good replacement, but it has a longer cooldown, and I miss the additional 8% healing received since my build stacks that stat. I'd say Juggernaut is also superior to Lamae as well in terms of the 'oh crap' self-healing power. Now that ZOS upped the drop rate for rare dolmen sets, Draugr's Heritage is the better choice over Death's Wind (though the traits and slots are somewhat limiting).

I honestly forgot about the Juggernaut set, namely because of how much of a hassle it can be to acquire it, same goes for Draugr's Heritage. I haven't been able to try either of them out because I usually get frustrated trying to get them and just go back to Leeching Plate, which I like because it has the 2 increased healing received, which is so nice on Argonian Tanks.

Juggernaut is super easy to get now in Guild Stores; in the IC update they buffed it to VR16 and allowed it to come in all traits. While it comes in all armor slots, ZOS removed the shield slot from the loot table. Luckily I had a V14 Juggernaut shield stashed away before they did that. But Juggernaut will get harder to find now since TG update because THEY REMOVED ALL THOSE PVP SETS FROM THE REWARDS OF THE WORTH LOOT TABLE (I'm bitter, I know). They also upped the drop rate for Draugr Heritage (along with Lich set), so it is pretty common now.

You didn't add "Kagrenac's Hope" for a magicka tank. It's got max health, max mag, mag regen, and spell power. This helps tremendously with heavy armored magicka tanks. (I've got a NB and a DK mag tank)